This invention pertains to pots or traps for finned fish or shellfish and, more particularly, to an automatic baiting device for providing fresh fish as bait to attract other fish into a trap.
One type of crab trap that is in common use today is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,283 issued to Robert E. Wyman, a coinventor of the automatic baiting device disclosed here. Such crab traps are formed by steel rods welded together to form a generally rectangular box structure, the walls of which are formed by nylon netting. As shown in the '283 patent, entry tunnels, formed by netting, extend inwardly from opposite ends of the trap and terminate in a rectangular frame secured to the netting, providing an opening through which the crabs fall into, and to the bottom of, the trap.
Bait of pieces of meat such as horsemeat or herring is secured by a hook or canister in a central region of such traps. The bait is not live, and deteriorates rapidly when a crab trap is "soaked" or placed in the water, particularly when the soak is for more than an optimum period of one or two days.
It is a specific object of this invention to provide fresh bait for a crab trap by inducing into the crab trap "ground" or bottom fish and, at the same time, inflicting an injury to the fish to thereby provide an attractive natural bait for crab and other scavenges.
In the past, a great many devices have been proposed for capturing fish and other animals in a trap. Such devices are found in U.S. Patent Office Class 43 and Subclasses 65, 66, 77, 81, 100, 102, 103, and 105 and are shown in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 584,226; 1,020,029; 1,034,360; 1,054,344; 1,283,018; 1,388,780; 1,703,288; 1,848,541; 2,578,172; 3,271,894; 3,337,982; 3,541,722; and 4,107,867. When designed for capturing shellfish, or other fish, these devices allow the fish to enter a trap without injury (see, for example, the '867, '894 and '982 patents referenced above). None of these or the above-referenced patents provide any teaching, or even a suggestion, of a device for automatically providing fresh bait for a trap.
Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide means for obtaining fresh and natural bait for a fish trap.
Another object of this invention is to automatically provide fresh and natural bait for a trap of the type used for shellfish after the trap is soaked or placed into the water.
A further object of this invention is to provide a device of the type described which is economical and easy to use and may be readily attached to, and detached from, a shell fish trap.